Armored Emotions
by Omega Overlord
Summary: Two lives, both filled with endless loss. Will they find solace in each other?


Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of Halo or Metroid portrayed within.

Phase 1: The Iron Marine

Spartan 117, the Master Chief, was dreaming. He saw faces… people he had known. All dead… every one of them. Why had all of them died? War just happens to make things turn out that way. He saw Captain Keyes and his daughter, Linda, Sam, Johnson… and Cortana… for good reason her face haunting his dreams bothered him the most. After what had happened on…

John's rest was rudely disturbed as his cryo pod was cracked open. Standing in front of him in the cryosleep area of the UNSC Spirit of Fire was one of the other Spartans that had miraculously survived an ordeal similar to his own.

Jerome-092 helped John to his feet, "sorry for the quick thaw sir, but we have some problems. Captain Cutter will be briefing us on the bridge."

John nods to the former leader of red team, "thaw out Alice and Douglas and meet me there."

Jerome snaps a quick salute and marches off. When John had been picked up by the wandering Spirit of Fire he almost thought he had died upon seeing _three_ other Spartans. The detail that the Spirit had no slipspace drive was inconsequential. Although none of them could replace those he had lost. He was glad that he wasn't completely alone.

John followed the running lights to the bridge. Captain Cutter, an aged but still superbly competent commander, was gazing out the front viewport at what appeared to be a small planet and a strange vessel docked with a covenant brute ship.

Serina, the Spirit's AI, formed on a holo pad next to Cutter, "one Spartan, ready for killing sir."

Cutter turns to the AI, "Serina, remind me who wrote sarcasm into your programming."

The hologram gives a shrug, "I couldn't tell you sir."

The Captain nods at the AI before turning to John, "Master Chief, good to see you."

John walks forward to stand next to Cutter, "likewise sir."

Cutter turns back to the viewport, "I know you've seen some covenant craft I haven't so I though I would consult your expertise before deciding upon a course of action. That ship next to the cruiser, have you ever seen anything like it?"

John looks out the viewport and begins to examine the vessel. It was long and had a vague teardrop shape, with a smooth hull all colored a light grey.

John turns his head back to the captain, "Sir, I've never seen anything like that fighting the covenant before. I'm certain it isn't one of theirs."

Cutter leans on the console before him, "I thought as much. It just isn't their style. What I want to know is who's is it. Could it be flood?"

John glances out the viewport before answering, "I don't think so sir. If it were the brutes would be scrambling all of their fighters. I can only assume they are some new allies of the covenant."

Cutter starts to massage his temples, "That's what I was afraid of… regardless, this planet was at the edge of UNSC controlled space and it hasn't been glassed. We might be able to find the parts to jury rig an FTL drive, get all of us home."

John cast a glance to the planet, "if that's the case I'll prep red team immediately."

Cutter shows a wan smile, "you read my mind Chief. Serina has located a place where the brutes seem to have been dumping all the human scrap they can find. If you'll find anything useful it will be there. Take Serina or the monitor with you."

The monitor, 1114 Resplendent Valor, had been stumbled upon by John and red team on installation 06. Another ring world that the Spirit had wandered upon drifting through space. Valor had been considerably more helpful then her 'brother' 343 Guilty Spark. She had actually burned more flood than John had shot, and had agreed to destroy the ring world after she was told of the destruction of the flood gravemind. The purple eyed monitor had proved to be a capable replacement of Cortana after… John shoved the memory away as he often did. It became a little bit harder to do every time it happened though.

John made his decision, "I'll take the monitor, another gun is always welcome." He did not mention that he didn't need a sarcastic female AI reminding him of Cortana in the middle of a firefight.

John met Jerome, Alice, and Douglas on his way back to the hanger. All of them were fully geared up and headed to the hanger to prep a pelican for launch. John headed to the armory to arm himself and pick up Valor on his way back. The monitor had taken a liking to the engine compartment and it was now the quirky AI's unofficial 'home'. John armed himself with his personal MA5C assault rifle and the Spartan laser that Johnson had given him before he died. He also attached an energy sword that one of the marines had taken as a souvenir to his hip. The blade weighed, at most, two or three pounds and compared to flipping a scorpion tank it was not even noticeable. John could easily forget that it was there until he needed it, and knowing the brutes tendency to go berserk and charge recklessly he would need it eventually.

John stopped at the entrance to Valor's compartment and knocked three times. Valor locked the door without fail every evening when she shut off for the night and although it was still technically 'night', John found he was always able to get her attention at any hour. Quite possibly due to the fact that she didn't really sleep, just acted like it.

The door slid open and a purpled-eyed version of 343 Guilty Spark was floating at eye level with him, "Reclaimer… how may I help you at this hour?" For the most part Valor was far more reserved and calm compared to Guilty Spark, but she still had moments where she acted almost exactly like her 'brother'. Such as when Alice had reflexively shot at Valor with a chaingun. The monitor had squawked almost exactly like Spark had when John had reflexively shot him on the first Halo.

John spoke to Valor, "Captain Cutter is sending us, along with red team, planetside to try and salvage enough parts to jury rig a slipspace drive. Get the whole crew home."

Valor 'blinks' a few times, "Splendid, shall some of my sentinels accompany us?"

John beckons Valor, "you can bring a few, this is stealth salvage, not planet wide pacification."

Douglas pilots the pelican dropship down to a small clearing about half a click from the junkyard.

John starts to give out orders, "ok, red team, I need you three to secure this location. I'll go ahead with Valor and some of the sentinels. I'll get the sentinels to bring whatever parts we need back here. If I trip an alarm I will need a quick evac, so don't lag."

Jerome, Alice, and Douglas each snap a quick salute and dug in around the trees and rocks. All but invisible to the untrained eye. John felt a small surge of pride in them before he turned to the junkyard and ran with assault rifle raised and ready, Valor hovering over his left shoulder and her sentinels hovering along, low to the ground behind him.

John entered the junkyard, silently slaughtered a few sleeping grunts and assassinated the brute while it was distracted by the appearance of Valor. At John's request Valor then took off through the more organized section of the junkyard to see if any covenant were still in the area. What John did not expect to hear over the com was a startled squawk from Valor and the sound of the monitor discharging her beam. John ran to Valor's position, turned the corner and saw what looked like a man in bright orange, now singed, armor stand up and fire a flurry of energy bolts at him. John fired off a handful of bullets and dove behind cover.

Phase 1a: An Armored Heart

Samus Aran was dreaming. This time, as often was the case, she was reliving the day that cursed dragon, Ridly, destroyed her normal life. She still remembered reaching out to the dragon with childish innocence only to have him laugh in her face and burn her parents to ashes. Along with the entire colony. Being found and taken in by the chozo… being trained as a warrior… and the whole time, that festering wound of hatred and sorrow that burned in her heart. The wound that would never heal, no matter how many times she killed Ridly or how many Pirates she killed… she felt she was cursed by fate to live out the rest of her days doggedly pursuing a goal that could never be realized. Samus knew in the bottom of her heart that she could never kill _all_ of the Space Pirates. They were so like cockroaches, no matter what she did they always managed to crawl away, hide, recuperate, and return stronger than ever. Roaches that were hell-bent on galactic domination, with the aggression and technology to carry it out.

Her ship's computer jolted her awake, "Miss Aran, You requested that I wake you when we had closed the distance with the Pirate vessel. We have."

Samus gazed, bleary-eyed out the front window of her hunter-class gunboat. She had indeed closed the distance between her and her prey. Along with… something else. A huge, purplish vessel was docked with the Pirate frigate. It was clearly a friendly meeting as there were no fighters out in the void. If the Pirates had forged some kind of alliance with another alien life form it would be disastrous for the entire universe. Not to mention the fact that it would make things a great deal more difficult for her.

She ordered her computer, "take the ship off of auto-pilot, I'm going in to investigate the other ship."

Her computer took a moment to respond, "… Auto pilot disengaged. I really would question the wisdom of flying closer to a vessel that could be armed with who knows what."

A wan smile spread beneath her visor, "well that isn't your call to make."

Samus pushed the throttle forward and closed with the large purple vessel. As she flew over the hull she noticed it was covered in a clear sheen, energy shields. If the Pirates bartered with whoever owned this ship and only received ship shielding… the GF would be destroyed inside of a year. Too late she saw the turret tracking her gunboat; a blue laser blast shot through both of her drive engines, sending her spiraling down to the planet. Desperately she struggled with the maneuvering jets, trying to slow her decent enough that she wouldn't be crushed to pulp upon impact. Slowly, ever so slowly, her decent slowed. Till she crashed into the ground, burying the front half of her ship in the dirt. The impact threw her forward into the viewport, knocking her unconscious.

About an hour later she is woken by the sound of something tapping lightly on her visor. She opens her eyes and there is a small, squat alien with some kind of pistol in it's hand tapping on her visor making odd chattering noises. Samus looks down without moving her head and registers the fact that all but her helmet was buried under a small pile of dirt. It would be relatively easy to rise out of the dirt and shoot the little alien in the head without it getting a shot off… but she didn't know how many others there were. She decided to leave it be… until the thing wrapped long fingers around her helmet and started to pull. Samus rolled over and cracked the thing over the head with her arm cannon. It gave a small, pathetic yelp and flopped over… dead or not she couldn't tell. It would seem however that something had heard the yelp of whatever the short alien was. Another alien, thin and wiry compared to the other one, activated a small energy shield and started pumping small plasma shots into her visor. At about five energy lost per hit it wasn't too serious (she had 1200 to begin with) but Samus still ducked behind some wreckage and sent a few shots into the shield. Of course they ricochet off with no effect. She ducks out and catches another plasma bolt to the face but she sends a missile straight and true at the alien. Sure the ballistic projectile would pierce the shield or kill the alien outright she sticks her head out again. The missile closes with the alien and at the last possible moment the creature ducks low and the missile skips off the shield like a rock on a pond. Samus curses and ducks back behind the wreckage. Irritated and angry she charges rather recklessly and kicks the shield right in the center. This knocks the wiry alien flat but the beast had one last trick up it's theoretical sleeves. An overcharged version of what it had been shooting before crashed into her chest and drained a whole energy tank in one shot! Samus promptly blows the creature's head off and returns to her ship's wreckage to recharge and think of a plan.

Samus had run a diagnostic on her ship and, as expected, it had lots of problems. The auto repair function was already engaged, but with the amount of damage… Samus could wait for a long time and the auto repair still wouldn't be done. She had however, seen a scrap yard of sorts on her decent. If she could scavenge some parts there she could be on her way back to the fight in no time. After a quick check to make sure all her gauges were full she engaged her speed booster and ran for the scrap yard.

Samus arrived in a section of the yard that was considerably more organized than other areas. She had walked by several bodies similar to the first alien she had slain, along with one big, ape like corpse that she was glad she would not have to grapple with. She starts to scan around for parts but hears something around a corner not far away, a small, metallic clank. Samus walks there slowly, arm cannon ready, a medium sized flying machine floats around the corner and flies by without seeming to notice her. Just to be sure Samus walks around the corner and comes face to… eye with a floating purple eye. Samus reflexively shoots the machine and it gives a cry of surprise before flattening Samus with a red laser beam that drains three tanks on the spot. She climbs to her feet and there is now no eye, just something tall, green, and armored. She fires a few shots and dives behind some scrap.

Phase 2: Titans Clash

John stuck his head out and caught only a glimpse of the other before a volley of shots forced him back into cover.

John spoke calmly into the com, "Valor, could you tell me what the HELL that thing is?"

Valor was decidedly unhelpful, "I'm sorry Reclaimer, but there is some kind of interference blocking a deep scan. I can only tell you that the armor scans as a class six combat skin."

John mutters, "three times as powerful as mine… terrific."

Valor breaks back in as John blasts his target with a round from his laser, "I wasn't finished Reclaimer, it scans as a class six in power only. It has a rather fatal flaw."

John advances to a ruined car with a spray of suppressive fire and two long dives, "well what might that be?" Well aware of Valor's far advanced idea's of technology.

Valor obliges as a volley of missiles crash against the car, "the shield strength is superior to yours and it has built in weapon systems but the shielding requires external recharge. In other words you simply have to outlast your opponent."

John judged it to be much more difficult than that, what with the power of the laser blasts raining down in an unending stream. It struck John that this was suppressing fire. Whoever it was… was advancing to attempt to pin and kill him. John pulled out a plasma grenade he appropriated off of a grunt corpse, judged the direction of the incoming fire, and threw the grenade blind over the car.

Samus was starting to get a little bit desperate. Her opponent was shielded in a way that she would have to hit him with a large enough volley to flatten the shields and then a still longer volley to punch through the armor. That and the laser it had hit her with had sapped three tanks and caused her space jump to malfunction. She needed to end this before it got too far gone to salvage. She steps out from cover and fires nonstop at where her assailant had hidden itself, stepping forward slowly forcing it to keep it's head down. At about ten feet away a small, blue orb floats over the car. It sticks to her left shoulder. Samus instantly recognizes it as some kind of explosive and attempts to shake it off, but the explosive stubbornly remains attached and detonates. Throwing her to the ground and draining another full tank. Samus sees the green figure rushing at her spraying full auto fire at her, shaving more energy off of her shields. In a desperation move she fires a missile that impacts her opponent in the shoulder, clearly punching through the shield and dealing massive concussive damage but still it attacked. Stomping hard on her arm cannon and jamming the barrel of it's gun in her face. Staring into the faceplate of her opponent like that momentarily froze her with fear, till she realized the easy way out. Samus engaged her morph ball and rolled away leaving a stunned opponent with a bomb as a parting gift.

The explosion from the small device his opponent left behind threw him backward but did not much beyond that, the missile though had him rubbing the back of his helmet in a daze. Once he recovered he reached for a fresh clip and found that he had put every bullet he had into the orange armor. That and his laser was low on battery…

Valor broke in on his thoughts, "Reclaimer, are you alright?"

John shot back his standard answer for questions regarding his health, "I'm fine."

Valor, surprisingly, gave what amounted to a sigh of relief, "very good… I also noticed that you are low on ammunition. There is a discarded rifle a short ways from your location next to a sleeping grunt if you are interested."

John shakes his head, "a rifle report would be heard a mile away and notify every covenant in the yard that humans are here."

John draws the energy sword off of his hip but does not activate it, "this will do just fine. Lead me to it."

Valor uploads a nav marker to his HUD, "three rows across, hands on knees, I think you tired it out."

With inactive sword in hand John climbs over the junk between him and his enemy.

The first thing Samus realized upon exiting her morph ball was that the green thing's stomp had broken her arm. Not only that, it had also disabled her missile battery. She programmed her suit to lock her arm in place, nothing else would happen hopefully. She hears a low, metallic clunk from above and the green figure drops to the ground not three feet away. It ignites some kind of sword and lunges at her. She lands an impressive kick to the side of the armored warrior's body but it felt like kicking a block of solid steel. The sword rises, and falls… straight across her chest, leaving a long, deep gash across her armor and draining the last vestiges of her shields. The next strike, goes home… her opponent impales her upon the prongs of the blade… a gasp of pain escapes her and spatters the inside of her visor with blood. She slips into unconsciousness…

John was caught completely off guard by the gasp of pain… it sounded… human…

Valor flies down from her high vantage point, "congratulations, you defeated her!"

John whips around, "HER???"

Valor replies mechanically, "with the puncture wound plus the lack of shielding I was finally able to perform a deep scan. Subject is a female reclaimer approximately 1.9 meters tall and about 90 kg in weight. Scans also include…"

John raises a hand and silences Valor, "enough, I'm getting her help."

Valor jabbers on as John scoops the woman up like a child and starts to run back to the pelican, "it is just as well, the sentinels have gathered all we could find that fits the parameters…"

John makes it back to the pelican in record time.

Jerome steps out of hiding, "good to see you back sir… who is that?"

John motions for Alice and Douglas to come out of hiding, "a human I encountered in the junkyard, there was a misunderstanding and we fought. Now she needs medical attention."

Alice heads into the pelican, "I'll radio ahead, request that Cutter thaw out the medical doctor."

John sets the woman inside the pelican and helps Douglas and Jerome load all the good parts that the sentinels had found, it was a sorry group of parts but perhaps Valor and the engineers could make something out of them. John cast a look over at the unconscious woman across from him. A not small amount of guilt gnawing at him.

Phase 3: Awakening

Samus awakes to the sound of Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture and the smell of disinfectants. She has a headache and feels weak but otherwise she felt fine… Where was she? There was one other person in the room, a man with his eyes closed conducting an imaginary orchestra through the crescendo of the overture.

She attempted to stand and the man's eyes snap open, "Ah! At last the sleeping beauty awakens!"

He had a thick German accent and an attitude to match.

He walks quickly over to where she is attempting to stand and firmly shoves her back down with one finger, "not so fast there. You were impaled on an energy sword, and seeing as this is _my_ medical wing you will not stand unless you are told to do so. Am I clear?!?"

Samus nods and lies back down without complaint, he was supposed to be a doctor and it would gain her nothing to defy him.

The doctor walks over to the wall and presses a button, "Captain, our guest has awakened, shall I inform the Master Chief?"

An aged, distinguished voice comes from the intercom, "please do sergeant, I will be down momentarily."

The doctor picks up a data pad and pulls up something that Samus couldn't see and for the next five minuets silence reigned in the medical wing.

The woman he had brought in was awake. John still felt guilty for almost killing her over a simple misunderstanding. If she was awake though… John found himself wondering how she would react when she saw his armored visage again. He supposed it really didn't matter. As he rode the lift to the medical bay he replayed the entire battle in his head. It was so blatantly obvious that she had been human but he hadn't been paying enough attention to realize that and try to negotiate. He turned the corner to the medical bay just as Cutter did the same from the other end. Cutter nods to John and punches in his access code to the security lock.

The door to medical slides open and, the first entrant was a seasoned man that could likely be the 'Captain' that the doctor had spoken with. The other… Samus felt her heart clench, it was the green thing from the junkyard. What was it doing here?!? The both of them cast a quick glance her way before turning to the doctor, Samus could have sworn that the green thing's gaze lingered for half a second longer than the Captain.

The old man speaks to the doctor, "Adolf, has she said anything? Who she is, what she was doing down there?"

Adolf replies plainly, "no sir, I can say with confidence she is the quietest woman I have ever met."

The Captain nods to the doctor, "I see…" He then turns to her, "I suppose I should introduce myself, I'm Captain Cutter of the UNSC Spirit of Fire, the ship you are currently aboard. I will say I was rather surprised that the Master Chief brought back another human from what was supposed to be a simple salvage mission."

Hesitantly Samus speaks, "Master Chief?"

Cutter gestures to the giant standing next to him, "this is the Master Chief, I understand you two didn't meet under the best of circumstances… I hope you will forgive him for the misunderstanding."

As if him almost killing me is a misunderstanding… she thought to herself. She did however notice the Master Chief looked a bit uncomfortable upon mention of their confrontation.

She speaks to Cutter, "I'm… Samus Aran. My ship crashed down on the planet. I was trying to find some parts and speed the repair process."

Adolf laughs, "how amusing! You, Frau Aran, were doing the exact same thing the Master Chief was doing!"

Cutter explains, "our ship is lacking a slipspace drive, without one we can maneuver. But we will be unable to get home for another couple hundred years at our current rate of speed. With the parts that the Master Chief brought up the engineers have jury rigged the basic workings of the drive but we lack the reactor that fuels the jump itself. Without one we are still stuck here. You said your ship crashed, was the reactor at all damaged?"

Samus mentally went back over the damage report, "no… no I don't think so."

Cutter nods, "good… Serina!"

A monitor on the wall turns on and what appears to be a young woman appears, "yes Captain?"

Cutter turns to the screen, "find where Miss Aran's ship crashed, thaw out some marines, and send them to retrieve the vessel. We just might have a working reactor."

Cutter turns back to Samus, "if your ship's reactor would let us get home would you let us use it for the time being?"

She nods, "of course, if you need it."

Cutter gives her a nod of thanks and walks out leaving the Master Chief standing awkwardly alone with just Adolf and Samus.

After a long moment she hears him speak, low and monotone, "I… I'm sorry for hurting you."

The Master Chief spins on his heel and walks out the door without waiting for a reply. Could he have felt guilty?

Adolf watches the Chief leave with some interest, "now that was odd… I have never seen the Chief apologize to anyone. Granted I have never known him to do anything that required apology but still…"

She posed a question, "you know him personally?"

Adolf's eyes take on a haunted look, "yes… I know him better than most…"

Samus lets the matter drop, knowing when someone was experiencing a painful memory. She should know… she saw that look just about every day in the mirror.

John walked slowly back to his quarters, planning on doing fifty sets of anything he could think of with his suit as dead weight. He knew he was bad at interacting with anyone but his Spartans but _that_… that was a whole new degree of awkward. Before the covenant arrived his human enemies had all been criminals and terrorists… this woman was innocent and he had almost killed her. Guilt was just the beginning of it. John shook his head to clear it, now was not the time for wallowing in his feelings. He still had a duty to accomplish, getting all of the marines' home. They had families waiting for them… as for him… the brutes were still trying to activate one of the rings. John knew he would keep fighting till there were no more halos, or he himself was killed. Then there was the flood to consider… he didn't know that it had been eradicated. Would it never end?

Phase 4: Out of the Frying Pan into the Cold

John was awoken the following 'morning' by three loud knocks upon his door.

Alice-130 was waiting outside; chaingun held over her shoulder, "Sir, Serina has picked up a distress beacon on the UNSC band. There are civilians still alive down there."

Beneath his helmet John was shocked, "I'll be at the bridge in two."

People still alive down there? That was nigh impossible. This planet had to have been one of the first invaded by the covenant… how could people have survived this long? It didn't matter, if they lived he would save them. John almost sprinted to the bridge where the rest of red team was already assembled.

Serina was on a pedestal to the right of Cutter, "well it's about time..."

Cutter clears his throat.

Serina gets back on task, "… I detected a distress beacon emanating from this polar region. The signal didn't start until the Chief's pelican was back on board."

Jerome breaks in, "if that's the case why didn't you notice it sooner?"

Serina cut back, "because I have many other functions besides monitoring the com channels."

Cutter silences the both of them, "enough, Serina, can you show us where the signal is coming from exactly?"

Serina pulls up a holographic version of the planet below, "right near the geographic north pole. About fifty degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. With a few scattered hot springs. The broadcast stems from one small spring only four clicks from the 'top of the world' as it were."

Cutter gives a curt nod, "Master Chief, load up and take a pelican down to the spring. I'll thaw the rest of the crew out and get them ready should you need any backup. Take Valor and several sentinels with you as well, the cold shouldn't bother them at all."

John splits up with red team shortly after leaving the bridge, to take a shortcut through the medical deck to the engine section.

The doctor, who had introduced himself now as master sergeant Adolf von Krieger, was checking Samus's arm to see if she could leave, "do you feel anything here, or here, or there?"

Each time she shook her head no. Her power suit had been brought up from the engine room, where it had been repaired by something, or so she had been told.

Adolf finishes his examination, "I do believe that you are ready to leave. Try not to wind up here again in the near future, much as I enjoy your company. Silence is golden no?"

His levity almost brought a smirk to her face… almost. She got up without a word and put on her power suit.

When she finishes Adolf speaks up, "you might wish to report to the bridge. Captain Cutter is the one to speak to about a possible berth for your stay here."

She nods and fits her helmet over her hair. Once that is done she hits the 'open' button next to the door and walks out. Loud clanking draws her attention to the retreating figure of the Master Chief. Where was he off to in such a hurry? She puts it out of her thoughts for the time being and turns to follow the map whoever had repaired her suit had been kind enough to download, to the bridge.

Samus arrives on the bridge, if one could call a huge room with only Captain Cutter in it a bridge.

Apparently Cutter heard her enter because he turned away from a holographic version of the planet below with a red dot near the North Pole, "Samus… good that you're well again, I suppose you came to see what is happening with your ship?"

Samus shakes her head, "I actually came to ask about quarters, where I would sleep."

Cutter smiles and shakes his head, "amidst all that's happening I assumed you would stay aboard your own ship. I completely forgot that it was nearly destroyed. Serina, bring up the room assignments."

Cutter gives the holograph a once over and Samus sees his eyebrows rise, "… the only available room is next to the Master Chief. I trust you two will be able to get along?"

Samus nods, "speaking of him I just saw him sprinting through medical…"

Cutter looks serious, "that would probably be him taking a shortcut to pick up Valor and his weapons. We picked up a distress signal from the planet on our own bandwidth. The Master Chief and his Spartan squad are going to investigate."

Serina materializes next to Cutter, "speaking of that, a dropship was just dispatched from our mystery frigate to the same location."

Beneath her visor Samus's eyes narrow, "mystery ship? The long silver one?"

Cutter turns from the hologram, "you are familiar with the ship?"

She nods, "not just that, I have dedicated my life to fighting the ones that made it."

Cutter looks off into space for a moment or two, "…then would you be willing to add your expertise to the Chief's mission?"

Samus is taken aback, "you mean work with him?"

Cutter nods, "I don't see why not, you two will be right next to each other for the duration of the voyage. You two should at least be able to work together."

Apparently Cutter takes her silence for complicity because he opens a com channel to the hanger, "Master Chief, you might want to hold off on the launch for a moment. Miss Aran has agreed to accompany your squad."

From the other end there was a short silence followed by, "…yes sir."

John closed the channel and signaled to Alice to cut the engines.

Douglas-042 breaks the silence, "the woman from the junkyard?"

John nods and silence returns, until Samus walks into the hanger and begins to walk over to the pelican.

Alice makes the comment that was on all the Spartan's minds, "great, bright orange. Might as well post a 'shoot me' sign with big neon letters."

Samus froze for half a second before boarding. Once she was strapped in John gave Alice the 'go' signal and the female Spartan threw the lever, causing the floor to drop out from under the pelican. An absolutely gut wrenching maneuver for anyone not used to it. To her credit Samus didn't appear bothered by the rapid decent. Although compared to a ship crashing this was cakewalk. John surmised that was why she didn't appear bothered. With his analysis done John turned back to the front where Alice was driving the ship down into the atmosphere.

Samus had never felt so sick to her stomach before in her entire life. It was all she could do to remain still and not betray any physical discomfort. The Spartans already didn't respect her and vomiting now would only make them laugh. It was a fairly new experience to not be even known to people. She could tell though that this was a tight knit group of people that had been through hell and back. She would have to prove that she could hold her own for them to accept her. Why she felt the need to prove herself to this band of brothers and sisters she had no idea. But seeing as they would be facing the Space Pirates she should have ample opportunity to show what she was made of. The other woman, the one that made the stinging comment about her color scheme, landed the dropship right outside of a small cave with steam pouring out of it. According to her scan visor there was a hot spring inside. That must have been how the humans had lived up here for so long.

John hopped down and tracked his sight across the frozen wasteland. Nothing visible so he signed down the three other Spartans and Samus.

As the latter was jumping down from the ramp Valor flew down with three sentinels in tow, "hello… oh! It is good to se you up and about again. Do you like the repairs I made?"

Samus is visibly put off by Valor's presence, "yes… they're fine."

Valor does not notice the tone, "splendid, I worked on it for quite some time you know? And it took…"

John silences the monitor before she could get to rambling, "enough, you and the sentinels will be protecting the pelican. We are going inside to find any survivors."

Valor almost sounds put off, "very well Reclaimer… we will defend your, bird."

The sentinels then settle into the snow, nigh invisible as the burnished metal shone like the snow.

Serina broke in over the com, "Chief, whatever your going to do hurry up. The dropship from the Space Pirate vessel is only thirty minuets out from your location. I don't know what they have and I doubt we want to know, hurry up."

John prepped his MA5C and led the way into the cave.

Samus was half a step behind the Master Chief; the other Spartans were slowly advancing behind them. Especially Alice, the one with the chaingun, she was the slowest one of them. It got to the point where the Master Chief ordered the other Spartan to mount the gun and cover their backs. Jerome and Douglas remained with them as they pushed deeper into the cave. Eventually the cold lessened enough that there was no longer any ice covering the ground. Just small puddles everywhere. As chance would have it she stepped into one of those puddles and set off a trap. A heavy crate dropped from the ceiling and pulled taut a carefully concealed cord set into the floor, a small noose tightened around her ankle unceremoniously hauling her into the air with a cry that was half way between rage and surprise.

Jerome saw her hanging there, "hey Douglas, fresh fruit."

Samus felt her face burning, silently thanking the chozo that had made the visors opaque.

The Master Chief turned back to the other Spartans, "enough, one step to the left and you would be the one hanging by a wire."

The Master Chief then pulls out his side arm and shoots the cable with one shot, Samus falls neatly into his arms.

He sets her back on her feet, "be careful."

With two words he turns away and holsters his pistol, once again leading the way. Samus silently cursed her luck as she followed, keeping a wary eye on the ground now. Her other eye followed the Master Chief, was he being… nice… out of guilt?

John leads his squad deeper. About five minuets after Samus's little problem with the noose he steps from stone to metal.

Lights snap on and blind him even as his faceplate darkens to protect from that, a loud voice comes from somewhere from behind the lights, "You'll never take us alive you alien bastards!!!"

Rocks start to fall from above and John yells, "Cease fire!!! We're here to get you off this rock!"

A loud commanding voice in a stereotypical pirate accent is heard over the falling rocks, "Oy!!! They be human. Cease fire mates!"

The lights shut off and people start to come out of hiding, one in particular starts to climb down to John's squad. He was a lean man with a large red beard with some metal hoops in it. He wore a long a long black coat over cold weather gear with a covenant carbine slung over his shoulder on an improvised strap. He reached the floor and without apparent fear jogged over to John.

The same voice that had commanded the people above spoke to John, "Can't tell ye how glad I am to be seein a Spartan in this hell hole. Been marooned here for just shy of ten years."

John shook the man's hand, "well you're not stranded anymore… what's with the accent, you sound like a pirate."

The man lets out a hearty laugh, "that would be because I _am_ a pirate, or was till some of me crew took off in me ship. All the people in here are former crew aboard the Flower of Scotland. Ye can call me Wallace, Wallace Green."

Beneath his helmet John scowled with distaste, he was rescuing pirates?!? John shoved aside his personal feelings, they were people and the 'Space Pirates' were on their way.

John spoke to Wallace, "get your people together, we need to leave."

Wallace laughs again, "what do you think they're doing up there? Getting drunk?!? My crew knows we aren't out of the fire yet. They should be ready in less than two minuets. We drilled this out and I timed em."

True to Wallace's word the other survivors began climbing down the walls with small bundles on their backs. In a well practiced routine… not at all like the unorganized rabble his teachings had told him about. John supposed there were exceptions to every rule.

Samus screwed her face up with disgust beneath her visor, pirates?!? Why did they have to be pirates??? She knew that there was a huge difference between these human pirates and the ones she hated but they were still close enough to invoke her ire. And here they were… silently making their way out to the dropship… no words of thanks, that she was used to, but from GF officials. Not from ordinary people. She gave a sigh and followed the Master Chief as he led the pirate band out of the cave.

The woman from outside, Alice, broke the silence, "sir, the Space Pirate dropship arrived, and they have something big."

She heard the Chief's voice over the com, "status, now!"

Alice comes back in over the com, "sir, the sentinels are engaged but they really don't seem to be doing any good against it. It's just ignoring them. There is nothing else coming out of their dropship sir… nix that, covenant forces are following it out. Grunts, jackals, and brutes."

The Chief made an announcement, "we're going to have to fight our way out. Anyone that can shoot grab a weapon and get to the entrance!"

Samus expected all of the pirates to cut and run back to their hole… none turned back. Every single one, from the oldest man to the youngest woman, pulled some variety of weapon from beneath their cold weather gear.

Wallace cried out, "Ye heard him mates! We fight our way out and we get off this rock! You know the code, any man that falls behind is left behind! CHARGE!!!"

The pirates run flat out ahead of the squad. Samus and all of the Spartans were dumbstruck for a whole second before they all ran after the pirates. Samus arrives at the entrance and Wallace's crew had already dug in around scattered rocks, shooting with wild abandon at the advancing covenant infantry, but behind the small ones… a berserker lord. A phazon armored tank of flesh that could only be killed from within or by destroying its back armor with the shots that it fired. Samus fervently wished that she had never turned the nova beam over to the GF.

John dug in next to Jerome, using his assault rifle to pick off the grunts and his laser to blast the stubborn brutes. Using the same weapon he tried a shot at the beast in the back that was getting so much attention from Samus and the sentinels, it only seemed to make it angry. The giant monster turned its aim from Samus to the rocks where John was taking cover.

John sees the cannons take aim at him, "…oh shit…"

The blast propels John up and over the battlefield, quickly taking advantage of his position John drops a frag grenade right on the head of the brute chieftain, the beast looks down at the grenade lying in the snow at its feet and reaches for its invincibility module. Too late however as the blast from the grenade hurls the device up to John, as well as chunks of brute flesh. He lands about two feet in front of the giant creature, as he gets back to his feet the beast looks stupidly at him. The monster then swiftly raises its fists and attempts to crush John into the snow.

As John is dodging the swinging fists of the monster Samus comes in over his com, "that's a berserker lord, you have to get away from it! It can only be killed from within or after six of its own blasts are redirected against it!"

John gets an idea, "from within… thanks." He shuts off the com to silence Samus's concerned… was she concerned??? His mind reeled while his body climbed up the back of the berserker lord, pried open its mouth, and forced a live frag grenade down its throat. There was a muffled 'whumph' and the berserker lord pitched forward to the ground, dead. John then used the conveniently still active cannons to obliterate the remaining covenant forces. Thanks to John and Samus there were only a few superficial wounds to some of Wallace's crew, there were many shouts of thanks and promises to make it up to them one day… all the while he was aware of the pair of eyes watching him, eyes opened and heart locked he watched the ground fall away as Alice flew the pelican back to Spirit of Fire.

Phase 5: Of Pirates and the Past

If anyone had asked her Samus would have been unable to answer why she had sounded worried when the Chief was thrown into battle with the berserker lord… she had wrapped herself in armor, physically and emotionally, for so long she was no longer sure what she felt about anything anymore. One thing she did know… was that somewhere between their duel in the junkyard and his fight with the berserker lord… the Chief had put a chink in her emotional armor. Intentionally or not she couldn't be sure… but it was there. She thought of asking the Chief to share his past… no. As quiet as he was his past must have been as traumatic as or worse than her own. Samus didn't know what could be worse than having your parents killed in front of you… but something horrible must have happened to him. She knew of one person that might be able to help her, Adolf von Krieger.

She entered the medical wing and asked the nurse on call, "is master sergeant Krieger in?"

The nurse looked at a data pad on the counter, "… no… I think he said he was going to the mess hall. He usually is there now anyway."

At the words 'mess hall' the few patients in the ward, all members of Wallace's crew, snickered just loud enough for Samus and the nurse to hear. Samus gave the nurse a questioning look (she was not wearing her helmet at the moment), the nurse just gave a shrug and looked back down to whatever she had been doing before Samus spoke to her.

John was doing nothing in his quarters, waiting for the reactor from Samus's ship to be installed into the improvised slipspace drive. Waiting for his next long cryo nap until humanity needed him again. As for Samus herself… John didn't know what he felt about her but he knew that he would never pursue any emotional connection. He remembered what Valor had blabbed about her past after hacking Samus's suit logs, why she fought and for how long she had spurned others. She and him followed a simple but painful way of life, 'if you get close to people you will only get hurt _when_ they die'. Just like what had happened on instillation 06… no. He would face this memory now. Cortana had been acting oddly ever since he retrieved her from inside High Charity, suspicious of everyone else since he was rescued by the Spirit of Fire. Once the ship stumbled across the ring world Cortana finally lost it and went rampant. She shut down Serina and locked down the ship, then… she started to drain all of the air. John had battered his way through every hatch between him and the bridge where Cortana had been plugged in. Once he had entered the bridge Cortana sealed all of the bulkheads and launched into a demented speech about how all of this was to 'protect him' from any more pain. John had had no choice; he pulled his side arm and shot the chip that contained Cortana's core. Many things happened at once, his suit received a message from Cortana of her speaking three words that cleaved all of his emotional armor, I love you. The millisecond after the bullet left the gun Cortana appeared on the screen in front of him, crying. The nanosecond the bullet hit the chip a bloodcurdling scream tore from every speaker on the entire ship before being violently cut off as her core was destroyed. Despite being cut off like that it echoed for what felt like an eternity, through his very bones. No one else knew exactly what had happened but with Cortana's 'death' the air was released back into circulation and the lockdown was lifted. John had slowly walked back to his quarters, the crowds parted before him in silence. He had locked his door and sat on the bed with Cortana's last message playing on a loop. For the first time since Sam's death many years ago he had felt like a broken man. John had made a solemn vow that day as he deleted Cortana's message. Never again would he get close to anyone or anything. His remaining existence would be lonely and filled with emptiness. But that was better for all involved.

Samus made her way to the mess hall. As she approached she started to hear… music??? She opened the door to the mess hall and… what looked to be almost the entire crew and every marine on the ship was crammed into the hall. Which had been decorated with gaudy, shiny things. Wallace's crew wandered around between the tables serving the Spirit's crew, wearing ridiculous outfits that were supposed to look like pirates from the 15th and 16th century. At one end of the hall some more of Wallace's crew were playing, not surprisingly, old pirate sea shanties with harmonicas, violins, and an accordion.

Wallace himself ran up to her the moment she walked in, "thar she be! I was beginning ta think that none of ye would be coming."

Samus gestures around, "what's all this?"

Wallace draws himself up with something like pride, "this be me an my mates way of thankin all of you for savin our asses. It would be perfect if the four of you that did the actual savin were here."

Samus makes to move by the pirate captain and he grabs her wrist, "an where do you think you're going??? You be one of the guests of honor. Loosen up, dance a little."

Samus stammers out, "I don't dance…"

Wallace gets a wicked gleam in his eyes, "oh ye don't do ye? We'll see about that!"

Wallace then proceeds to drag an astonished Samus out into an area that had been cleared of tables and starts swinging her around with no sense of timing or style whatsoever.

A familiar German accent accompanies a finger tapping on Wallace's shoulder, "excuse me Herr Wallace, may I cut in?"

The pirate passes Samus off to Adolf and moves on to a young navel woman without complaint.

The German mercifully leads the way off of the improvised dance floor to a relatively quiet section of the mess hall, "my nurse told me you were looking for me. How may I help you this festive evening?"

Samus hesitates for a brief moment, "…could you… tell me about the Chief? His past… what happened to him?"

Adolf lets out a deep sigh, "I suppose I should have known that I would have to share his tale. I just never thought it would be you to ask…are you sure you wish to hear this? John's story is not for the faint of heart."

Samus hesitates, "…yes…"

Adolf nods and begins…

About an hour later when Adolf finishes Samus was on the edge of tears herself, "how… how is he…?"

Adolf looks down at the table, in his tale he had admitted to be one of the surgeons that had 'enhanced' the Spartan soldiers, "you ask why he is not in a catatonic state?"

Samus nods, "yes… how can he keep going?"

Adolf grimaces, "my professional opinion… John clings to his duty like a drowning man clings to a raft. You take away his duty and what is left for him? He was bred and trained mercilessly for war. What do you think will happen to him should he survive this entire war and all the rings are destroyed? The government will likely throw him in cryo until the next war… now ask yourself what kind of a life is that? You, Samus, at least have the option of living a normal life. John does not, the UNSC will wring every last drop of blood and life from John until he is nothing but a desiccated husk. Then he will have a memorial built in his honor and slowly be forgotten… Now that you know everything as I know it, what will you do?"

If pressed Samus still would not have been able to answer. Nothing she could have ever imagined had compared with the reality of John's life. Only one thing was clear, the chink in her armor… was now a gaping wound.

Phase 6: Broken Homecoming

John was standing on the bridge, the entire crew had been thawed a day before the slipspace journey would have ended. The view from the bridge was being broadcast throughout the entire ship, to allow all the marines the first glimpse of Earth any of them had seen in over ten years. Serina had been kind enough to set a timer in the corner of the front view, which now read thirty seconds. The tension mounted faster than John would have thought possible as the timer ticked closer to zero… three… two… one. There were some scattered shouts of celebration that cut off mid way through, what with the image on the screen none would be celebrating for a while yet. A small force of brute ships were holding off a rebuilt home fleet while a flotilla of Space Pirate vessels scattered dropships like a fiery rain all over east Africa.

Serina broke in on all their thoughts, "Captain! I have Lord Hood on the line for you."

The screen shifted to show Lord Hood, the leader of Earth's defenses, now looking significantly older than when John had last seen him, "Spirit of Fire this is Lord Hood speaking… damn it's good to see you again Cutter."

Cutter smiles at the screen and motions John forward, "I'm not all you'll be happy to see."

Hood sees John and it was clear even from the other side of the view screen that he nearly fainted with relief, "thank whatever god of luck that watches over you Chief. Cutter, the home fleet will mop up the rest of this brute fleet and engage the other ships. We need you to deploy your troops down to the surface and destroy whatever those monsters have deployed."

Both John and Cutter give a swift salute before the screen shuts off.

Cutter turns to John, "Chief… I'm sorry to ask so much of you but I have no choice. You and red team will deploy down to the surface and secure a location for a base. If you need it the MAC gun will fire as fast as it can cycle."

A voice floats over from the hatch, "is there room for one more?"

John turns and Samus was in the doorway, wearing a blue, skin-tight outfit, standing with one hand on her hip. John also noticed how most of the male bridge crew was staring open mouthed at her. He wasn't really surprised, Cortana had been a hologram and more than one green marine had walked into a wall from staring at her. The major difference here was that Samus was real, not a hologram.

John looked deep into her eyes, noticing what a nice shade of blue they were… mentally he slapped himself, "Always."

Samus seems to smile and presses something on her wrist, there was a flash of light and Samus was now standing in her suit. The men on the bridge, with the exception of John and Cutter give a collective sigh of disappointment.

Samus couldn't have told anyone why she had walked onto the bridge in her zero suit. What she could tell anyone was the fact that every eye on the bridge had been on her… except for John. He had only given her a cursory glance before looking into her eyes. That was far from the usual reaction most men gave her, granted not many men had actually seen her out of her power suit, but it felt nice that he had not just been staring at her like the rest of the men. Her last thought gave her pause… what in hell was she trying to accomplish? Samus followed John down to the hanger where the other three Spartans were already prepping the pelican to launch. One of the other Spartans, Jerome she thought, tossed John his assault rifle and laser before jumping up into the pelican. John followed his fellow Spartan and surprised her by turning and offering her a hand up. It was almost gallant… maybe she was starting to grow on him. Samus braces herself for the drop and fares only slightly better than before, maybe eventually she would get used to it. All of the invaders were landing in a huge blackened spot of earth about four miles from the high rise that John had chosen as a base location. Samus could see the benefits; a high sloped hill would give the base an excellent vantage point plus make it harder for infantry to assault the stronghold. Lastly, the only way to ascend in any reliable manner was a long, winding path that wrapped around the entire bluff. The trail had several spots where anything crossing would be completely vulnerable to enemy fire for extended periods of time. Samus grinned as she saw the perfect place for her to stand and rain down shots on anything trying to climb the path. The only thing she would have to worry about was if Ridly showed his ugly visage she would be vulnerable. Samus knew it was highly unlikely that the dragon was ready for combat yet. Seriously, the last time she killed him he had exploded in a detonation of cataclysmic proportions.

John jumped out of the pelican and swept the entire area before signaling the others down from the dropship. Alice dumped the crates of ammo out of the bird and sent it back to the Spirit.

John opened the com channel to Cutter, "sir, landing site secured. Send down the base."

John heard Cutter on the other end, "Serina send down the pre-fab base. Master Chief, hold that location, Serina has detected massive amounts of the enemy closing in."

John pauses for half a second, "by land or air?"

Instead of Captain Cutter, Serina answers him, "all enemy units are ground-bound, and I suggest you decide where to put our first MAC shot, the cannon is 85 percent charged."

John zoomed in on the approaching army. Most were grunts and brutes with some scattered pairs of hunters. However all of those were gnats compared to the berserker lord and platoon or so of reptilian looking aliens around it. John guessed that they would be the 'Space Pirates' that Samus hated. While there were many more covenant troops John knew how to combat everything the brutes could bring to the table. With that in mind John called in the MAC strike right on top of the berserker lord. The blast literally erased the berserker lord and every Space Pirate in the visible area.

Samus gave an audible groan over a private channel, "nice shot… leave some for me why don't you?"

John felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards, "don't worry, there are plenty more to shoot."

Samus laughs, "Oh I won't, and I'll be keeping score."

She closes the channel before John could say anything. Not that he would have had anything to say anyways. John just shakes his head as Samus jumps up to a small alcove and waits for the opposing army to get within range.

Samus didn't wait long, almost within thirty seconds of her leap to her alcove Jerome puts a sniper round square in the forehead of the leading 'brute'. As she started to unload into the distant mass she mentally went over the nicknames the Spartan's had for the different varieties of aliens in the mass below. The 'grunts', cannon fodder and weak in every aspect. 'Jackals', the shield toting sharpshooters that were so irritating to her. And the massive, bipedal, 'hunters', those things took a round from John's laser to kill. Samus knelt to avoid some of the incoming shots, a small part of her mind was in fact keeping track of how many of the soldiers her shots killed. Knowing how serious John was she doubted that he was keeping track. There was a loud explosion from where Alice had set up her chaingun. One of the brutes had recklessly charged the Spartan's gun enveloped in some kind of barrier and had swung some kind of mace that had caused the explosion and sent the female Spartan flying to the position Douglas had taken. Samus watched Douglas look down at the motionless body of the female Spartan.

Douglas's voice came in over the com, deathly calm, "nobody else shoot that brute. He's mine."

Samus watched the Spartan charge the brute, flip over the beast's swing, and place a rocket square in the back of the brute's head. Blasting it off. The mace flew at John who turned and snagged the weapon by the handle and leaned it against the stone behind him. Samus turned back to raining hell upon the covenant when a familiar shriek caused her to freeze in place. Time seemed to slow as she turned her head and Ridley swept her off her perch and sent her tumbling down the mountainside. With the dragon in hot pursuit.

John heard the shriek and turned in time to see what looked to be some kind of… dragon… sweep Samus out of her alcove and send her flying down the side of the mountain. John watched with a mixture of shock and alarm. A small corner of his mind voiced concern that he was concerned but the soldier part of his mind saw only an ally in danger, against a foe that quite literally had the drop on her. John looked out over the wall of covenant soldiers between him and the duel currently raging between Samus and the giant dragon. It looked for the moment that she would be alone against the beast… although… John pulled out the invincibility module he had acquired from the brute chieftain back on that nameless planet and the gravity hammer leaning against the stone behind him… what the hell. His life was forfeit anyway.

John spoke two words into the com on a broadcast to Jerome and Douglas, "cover me."

Samus was in dire straits, thanks to the fall and the cheap shots Ridly had landed as she fell her shield energy was dangerously low. One strong attack from the dragon could puncture her armor and mortally wound her. That and Ridly had been enhanced since their last fight, impossible as it sounded he was even more dangerous. The dragon was now able to fly faster than the speed of sound, and while the sonic boom didn't hurt her shields the attacks he landed while she was stunned from the blast did. If Ridly hit her with one more sonic boom she was as good as dead, so she was running as fast as her speed booster allowed across the path of the dragon. Desperately trying to avoid the blast that would kill her. She runs towards the mountain, hoping that Ridly would not follow. She turns her head and the dragon's tail lances forward, spearing the ground and slingshotting him at a sharp 90 degree angle to follow her exactly. Just before Ridly crashed into the side of the mountain he pulled up and broke the sound barrier with one last mighty flap of his wings. The sonic boom causes Samus to pitch forward and sprawl across the ground. Almost instantly Ridly is pinning her to the ground under one of his talons and roaring in triumph. The dragon glares down at her and raises one claw. Knowing what he was about to do Samus braced herself, Ridly plunges the claw into her midsection and twists it. It took every shred of will Samus had to not scream her lungs out in pain. She could tell from the way Ridly's eyes burned that he wanted her to scream. But she would not let him have that satisfaction.

A familiar voice shouted, "Hey! Bird brain! Catch!!!"

John was standing at Ridly's chest height and had thrown… a rock… granted it was the size of a house but… Ridly would just… As predicted Ridly's tail slashed the boulder neatly in half. What neither Samus nor Ridly expected were the two glowing orbs that were flying _behind_ the rock. The twin explosives sail unimpeded and attach to opposite sides of Ridly's chest, simultaneously as the explosives detonated John shot the foot holding her down with his laser. Ridly roared in pain and staggered back a step, clutching at the remains of his chest armor. Samus sees her one chance to finish the dragon off and fires her zero laser. Draining her suit completely dry even as she kills Ridly for the umpteenth time. The dying dragon lashes his tail in one final attack. Samus sees it coming and does not have the strength left to get out of the way, she closes her eyes and expects at any moment to feel Ridly's tail puncturing her chest… the pain never comes. Samus opens her eyes and John was standing over her, both hands wrapped around the tip of the dragon's tail. Ridly roars again in frustration and rage and begins to explode. John pulls out a small device and hurls it into the ground at her feet. A protective bubble forms, shielding them both from the devastation of Ridly's death. Once, when it looked like the shield was going to give out, John knelt protectively next to her, as if ready to shield her with his own body.

John let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding, the dragon… if that was what it was, was dead. Samus still had been impaled.

John pulls his med kit and withdraws some bio-foam, "this is going to hurt, ok?"

Samus nods and closes her eyes, "…ok…"

John tries to be reassuring, "on the count of three. One… two…" On two he sticks the nozzle of the bio-foam into the wound and sprays.

Samus gives an involuntary gasp, John could sympathize. It felt like a million needles stabbing every cell in the wound. He had patched himself up enough times to know.

Samus looks up at him, "thank you… for saving my life…"

John shrugs, "I owed it to you from the junkyard."

As John walks around gathering the scattered pieces of her armor Samus props herself into a sitting position, "is that… the only reason?"

John freezes, he had known she was watching him since before the Spirit's last jump but… this was something else, "I… I need some time to think…"

Samus seems satisfied with his answer as he picks her up and carries her back up the trail. Now coated in layer upon layer of blood and gore.

On the top of the mesa John is greeted by Cutter and a pelican, "Master Chief, damned if I was ever going to have a heart attack when you charged down the path with a hammer. You and red team are going back to the Spirit to rest, and that's an order."

Samus looked up and him and grinned, "I guess that means you win."

John shook his head and got into the pelican.

Phase 7: The Aftermath and the Future

John had some serious thinking to do. He lay on his bunk trying to puzzle out, of all things, his feelings. Samus actually seemed to care for him… what was even more bizarre was that… he felt the same way. In total violation of the vow he had solemnly made months ago. He was a Spartan… when he had been inducted into the program it had been quite clear that they would be denied a normal life for the greater good. They would all suffer so humanity could live a happy, blissfully ignorant life. All of them had been trained to forget even the feeling of their lives before the military. Hell… he didn't even know if his parents were alive anymore, not that he would ever see them even if they were… news that the government had kidnapped children to conscript into the military would cause mass riots and anarchy on a massive scale. But… did that mean a Spartan could never have anything of a normal life? When Alice had been wounded by the brute chieftain Douglas... his voice... Most people generally thought of Spartans as cold, emotionless, killers. What with the monotone voice every one of them took up conversing with other people there wasn't much to argue otherwise. It took another Spartan to know when something was going on with a brother or sister. What any other would have taken as a bizarre reaction from a Spartan was clearly a voice filled with anguish to one who had been raised alongside them. Douglas had been wallowing in anguish that Alice had been hurt, a certain amount of trust was necessary between comrades-in-arms but… it was clear to John that Douglas felt for Alice in a deeper way. Maybe… Spartans had always fought for each other, it gave them reason to keep fighting. That and their duty to die for the UNSC kept them going. Maybe it was worth it to have more than a reason to die… despite the risk… maybe it was worth it… to have a reason to live.

Samus was in the medical wing, getting a rather stern but amusing lecture from Adolf after he had patched the hole in her stomach.

The German wrapped up his speech, "… and next time how about we shy _away_ from the sharp objects hmm???"

Samus lets out a low laugh, "I'll be sure to keep that in mind, next time I get ambushed by a psychotic dragon with a death wish."

Adolf smirks, "On top of that you must be quite pleased with yourself."

A moment of confusion descends upon her, "I… don't follow you."

Adolf shakes his head, "John pulled one of his famous, death-defying stunts to save your life. And this was minor in comparison. I have been conversing with some old friends and they say John shot himself and a bomb at a covenant battle cruiser by decompressing a launch bay on one of the orbital gun stations."

Samus shakes her head and stands, "I'm going to go find him."

The German takes on a wicked smirk, "I'm sure you are, and wear your armor. You strut when you're not in it."

She gives Adolf a questioning look, "Strut?"

The sergeant laughs and walks back and forth across the ward swinging his hips in a highly exaggerated way, "answer your question?"

The marines in the ward start crying with laughter, Samus quickly spins on her heel and walks out of the ward to hide the intense red coloring her face.

John had thought enough and was ready to give Samus her answer. Odds were that she was still in the medical wing so John hit the 'open' switch and waited until the hatch was just high enough to let him through. As fate would have it Samus was standing on the other side just raising her hand to knock. John rather unceremoniously bowled her over, her legs became tangled with his and they both went down with a loud clang of metal on metal.

John pushes himself half-way up and looks down at a breathless Samus, "…sorry…"

Samus rubs the back of her head, "it's fine, it could have been much worse."

There is a clatter and a gasp from down the hall, both John and Samus turn their heads and see a young naval officer standing with mouth open. The clatter had been the young officer dropping a stack of data pads covered in what looked to be engineering schematics.

John mentally took a step back from himself to imagine what the officer was seeing… Samus flat on her back and John half-crouched over her…

John stood and unintentionally put a small amount of menace in his voice, "you saw nothing."

The officer nods with a terrified look on his face, stoops to pick up the data pads and runs away like he was running from the wrath of some god.

Samus smirks as John helps her back to her feet, "you didn't have to terrify the guy you know."

John leads her inside his room and shuts the door, "I know…"

Samus sits on the end of the one bunk, "have you… thought about it?"

John sits down on the bunk next to her, "… yes… yes I have…………… I feel the same."

Samus lets out a huge sigh and slumps back against the wall, "you have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that. I know what a huge risk this is for both of us… It's funny, my heart starts acting up after I thought it dead and I haven't even seen your face."

It slowly dawned on John what she was asking; he slowly raised both of his hands and removed his helmet.

Samus unconsciously held her breath as John removed his helmet. A million thoughts of what he might look like flashed through her head as he lowered the helmet to the floor. John was still for a moment after he took it off and all Samus could see clearly was the back of his head, brown hair that reached the nape of his neck and beneath that… his skin was almost paper white. His skin had likely never seen a sun since he was given the armor. Slowly he turned to face her; surprisingly the face looking back at her was rather plain. Strong and well chiseled, but plain… apart from the paleness she could have easily lost him in a crowd.

The edges of John's mouth twitch, "Not quiet what you expected is it?"

Samus leans in and lightly brushes her lips against his, "I didn't expect anything. What I see is enough."

What is likely the first genuine smile in years crosses John's face. Samus felt an unfamiliar warmth building inside of her. Not the roaring fire of rage or hate… just a warm glow, like being immersed in a warm bath.

A screen on the wall snaps on and Serina appears, "I do hope I'm not interrupting anything but the Space Pirates and brutes have launched another attack. The Captain needs the Chief on the bridge."

John lets out a long sigh as he stands and places the helmet back over his head.

Samus stands as well, "it never ends does it?"

John shook his head, "no… it doesn't. But I think all that matters is having something to come back to during the time you have."


End file.
